| Event | Pokémon Players Cup 25th Anniversary Invitational |
|---|---|
| Location | Online |
| Date | Streamed on 14–15 August 2021 |
| Attendance | 8 players |
| Videogame | Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield |
| Season | 2021 Season – VGC21 Series 10 |
| Format | Double elimination |
Structure
This invitational tournament was organised to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. The Pokémon Company International invited the following players, all of them former World Champions or Players Cup winners:
Arash Ommati, 2013 World Champion
Sejun Park, 2014 World Champion
Wolfe Glick, 2016 World Champion and Players Cup II winner
Ryota Otsubo, 2017 World Champion
Paul Ruiz, 2018 World Champion- Naoto Mizobuchi, 2019 World Champion
- Santino Tarquinio, Players Cup winner
Renzo Navarro, Players Cup IV winner
These players would face each other in a double-elimination bracket in best-of-three matches.
The winner of the Invitational would face a mystery Final Boss, later revealed to be American Ray Rizzo, 3-time (2010, 2011 and 2012) World Champion.
Streaming
The matches were prerecorded in an unspecified date (presumed to be on 31 July 2021) and streamed on 14 and 15 August 2021 on the official Pokémon Twitch channel. The stream featured the experienced casters Aaron Zheng, Rosemary Kelley, Adam Dorricott and Lou Cromie.
- Day 1 featured the tournament until 6 players remained.
- Day 2 featured all other matches and the Final Boss Exhibition.
Take a look below at the following matches!
Link 1 (G1 of Arash vs Santino) here!
Link 2 (rest of that set and other matches) here!
| Time | Round | Player 1 | vs | Player 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:53 (link 1) 0:00 (link 2) | WR1 | Arash Ommati | vs | Santino Tarquinio |
      |     | |||
| 10:18 | WR1 | Wolfe Glick | vs | Naoto Mizobuchi |
     |    | |||
| 38:00 | WR1 | Paul Ruiz | vs | Ryota Otsubo |
  |      | |||
| 1:17:07 | WR1 | Renzo Navarro | vs | Sejun Park |
|     | |||
| 1:56:45 | LR1 (T8) | Naoto Mizobuchi | vs | Arash Ommati |
| | |||
| 3:02:16 | LR1 (T8) | Ryota Otsubo | vs | Sejun Park |
| | |||
| 3:36:20 | WR2 | Santino Tarquinio | vs | Wolfe Glick |
| | |||
| 4:12:05 | WR2 | Renzo Navarro | vs | Paul Ruiz |
| |
Link for all the following matches here!
| Time | Round | Player 1 | vs | Player 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:49 | LR2 (T6) | Renzo Navarro | vs | Arash Ommati |
| | |||
| 51:24 | LR2 (T6) | Ryota Otsubo | vs | Wolfe Glick |
| | |||
| 1:09:16 | LR3 (T4) | Arash Ommati | vs | Ryota Otsubo |
| | |||
| 1:40:33 | Winners’ finals | Paul Ruiz | vs | Santino Tarquinio |
| | |||
| 2:12:31 | Losers’ finals | Ryota Otsubo | vs | Paul Ruiz |
| | |||
| 2:40:01 | Grand finals | Santino Tarquinio | vs | Ryota Otsubo |
| | |||
| 3:11:08 | Grand finals reset | Santino Tarquinio | vs | Ryota Otsubo |
| | |||
| 3:27:38 | Final Boss Exhibition | Santino Tarquinio | vs | Ray Rizzo |
|   |
